Is it just me or are a lot of worship songs mediocre?

“Now you will notice that I said “very poor”, not terrible, not abysmal, not “from the very pen of Beelzebub himself”, just poor. Honestly I wish they were completely awful, because there is truly nothing worse than a mediocre song. You don’t love them, you don’t hate them, they don’t challenge you, they don’t raise any particular emotion. They aren’t too noisy, the guitars are very smooth, you probably more-or-less agree with the lyrics and the man playing them looks like a rather nice chap who you would very much like your daughter to marry. It’s all just terribly, terribly nice…

I want songs with edge, with attitude, songs that challenge, songs that express real emotion – everything from true, uncontainable joy to total dark despair – because that reflects reality. I don’t want the same old cliches about tongues confessing and lambs being slain. I don’t want guitars with some lame, gutless, poor-imitation-of-U2 effect”

I found myself agreeing with a lot of what this guy was saying. As a worship pastor, I hear a lot of worship music and I have to say, a lot of it sounds the same. Same style, same format, same builds, same instrumentation, same lyrics… However, I do have some questions as to whether this is because the songs are ‘mediocre’ or if the problem is actually me?

Have I become too familiar and desensitised to worship music?
Have I made the worship experience too much about me and what I like to feel and listen to?

Should we even be critiquing worship music the way we would any other music? The thing is, when you are critiquing a worship song, you are not just judging the song’s music and lyrics in a distant and detached way, you are critiquing that person’s revelation of God and how they have recorded it. You are judging how they relate to God and describe their experience. And whereas I might not like the song, to another, it could bring the words of life.

Worship music is such a tricky thing to balance. Whilst we want to strive to give God our best musically- which of course we should, it is about so much more than that. It is about drawing people to worship Jesus. If worshipping in Spirit and in truth is to become so lost in God, that we lose focus of all else around us, then whose responsibility is it to get us to that place?

Is it the song writers?
Is it the worship leaders and the band?
Is it the worshipper?
Or is it God himself drawing us into his presence?

I would argue God uses a delicate balance of all of us involved in worship to have an encounter with him. I guess we have to try and do our bit well and the best we can. Whether it’s the writing, the music, the leading, responding or receiving.

As a writer of worship songs myself, I know it is easy to fall into the trap of being lazy with my lyrics and using over-done cliches. We can give in to our own ambitions to try and write that worship song that everyone will be singing at the summer conferences, so we try and come up with a killer hook for the wrong reasons. We can try and write what the publishers are after with wrong motives. I think we can also be tempted to try and imitate other worship leaders (who are more successful) instead of bringing things from our own hearts. I think we can turn song writing into a fun project instead of an articulation of all that God is and what he’s done. We can get caught up in the music more than his presence. Maybe the reason we are not that excited about some of the new worship songs that are out there is because they are a product of the Christian music industry rather than a product of an encounter with God? (I hope that this is not the case)

At the same time as wanting to bring something real and authentic into my songwriting, I don’t want to try and add anything to the gospel message. I want to stick to the amazingly profound yet simple truths and I want to make sure my lyrics have a biblical foundation. There are always going to be lots of songs about the Lamb upon the throne- but is this a bad thing? This is how John saw Jesus in his vision of heaven- the most clear description we have. Surely if in heaven, they are singing “worthy is the lamb” again and again for all eternity, we should reflect that on earth and not grow tired of singing it. If we are growing tired of it, maybe we should look at our own hearts to see whether the reason we are bored of singing ‘worthy is the Lamb’ is because we’ve forgotten just how worthy the Lamb is…

Shouldn’t we, as worshippers, be learning how to worship even if the music/ singing is bad, the song is in a style we don’t like and we’re not in a great place in our lives?

The blog I read (above) is definitely controversial, but it has inspired me to write from my heart and to the best I can. It’s also challenged me to not give in to the temptation of becoming a worship music consumer and remember why we sing.

What do you guys think?

Sarah de Jong is Worship Minister at St Gabriel’s Church, Cricklewood, London

Its great to have these guest posts from worship leaders, musicians and others. If you have a burning issue that you’d like to talk about on our website, please do get in touch.

Its true! Most worship music sucks big time. My guess is that many of the people have been taught 'worship' and they have learned music as form of 'worship' but not as an art in itself, which requires a lifetime to master and hone. Not only that, but there are often worship schools where they teach people formulas for 'proper' worship, or proper praise songs. It drives me crazy. I can't handle mediocrity. I'm an actor, and an artist in every respect. I can't handle this halfassed approach to music, it's so suburban and banal, and it drives me away and makes me feel turned off of worship! What can I do???? PleasE SOMEONE point me to some worship music that can actually move me, something that can make me excited, or ache, or even angry, not numb and sickened. Thanks for letting me vent. I always thought I was the only one who felt this way....

let's be honest, the "spiritual" leaders of Christ's day thought of Him as a mediocre man - a carpenter's son from Galilee
and the apostles were considered the same - ordinary men by their own admission
it was the filling of the Spirit that set them apart from their contemporaries
no song is mediocre, what makes it otherwise is the spirit that fills it,
many "time-honored" hymns are rendered mediocre by the way we sing them on a given Sunday

Here's a bit of research I did on this subject that will expand a bit on what Jason had to say. In the history of the church, there are between 600,000 and 1,000,000 hymns that have been written. Currently, there can really be no more than 5,000 to 6,000 unique hymns in current circulation. By unique, I mean that we only count each hymn that is in circulation once--we do not count each instance of a hymn. Even if it shows up in multiple hymnals, we still count it once.
With those numbers in mind, we can quite accurately calculate a "percentage of success" for the hymnody of the church. By simple arithmetic, the "success rate" for hymns lies somewhere in the 1/2% to 1% range (worst case scenario: 1,000,000 hymns divided by 5,000 in circulation = 1/2%...best case scenario: 600,000 hymns divided by 6,000 in circulation = 1%).
So, if the hymnody of the church enjoys only a 1/2% to 1% success rate, it seems to me that such a standard should be readily applied to the current music that is coming out of the church. And suddenly, the amount of "sub-standard" worship music that is being created today doesn't seem quite so imposing.

Interesting comments/thoughts, Sarah. Some random thoughts from an 'oldie'...
We will always have to "critique" new songs before we introduce them to a congregation. "Is the theology ok?" (sadly this will differ - remember all the discussions about Stuart Towend's 'In Christ Alone' and 'the wrath of God'); "Will our congregation be able to sing it?" (ever come back from an event with that great song to discover nobody else can sing it); "Is the song appropriate for our group to play/sing" (again it may have sounded great when the Soul Survivor/New Wine band played it but when you get home...!)
I don't think the whole 'worship music industry' helps much. You get emails advertising CDs, videos, etc, in much the same way as you would with the secular music industry. Therefore the temptation to judge on the same basis is somehow inherent in the whole business.
I wish I could go back the the days of Wesley. Were congregations, etc, then waiting for his next composition with the same way we look forward to the next song/CD by whoever, or comparing his hymns with someone elses? ( on a bit of a tangent, ever had complaints when you 'update' the arrangement for a hymn or even dare to introduce a new tune? Should have a look through an old hymn book and see how many tunes were written after the writer of the words had died. I wonder if Wesley's 'fans' objected? I suspect nothing changes)

Amen Sarah! We should always give Jesus our best, whether we are the producer, song writer, singer/musician, soundman or worshiper....which means to me that it is my heart that is out of place if i can't join in praise of God if the worship team is not particularly stunning or playing the style of music i like. The music may not always be amazing but God always is! It is what the Lord has served up for that particular service and we should be grateful to receive it and partake. Kind of like Manna….

Thanks for expressing what a lot of people must silently think in congregations. I think possibly one of the most important things of all is - did the songwriter encounter God when the song was birthed?
If so then what results will have the anointing which transcends generations, no matter what the style may be. If we are co-workers with Christ, are we not co-songwriters with Him? I suspect that's what He longs to do, write songs with us!
Blessings and thanks again - reading your post was a nice way to start the week.
Dave

nice post - i would like to add that one of the best ways for us to reinvigorate worship in our local churches is to writes our own music. sometimes the songs are fine, but don't connect because God is doing a different thing in our church at the moment. some songs - even great ones - are just never going to connect at my church simply because we are a peculiar people from a particular place. i'm not saying we should never do cover songs or traditional hymns - but i am saying that we should widen our worship context to include something from within. it may be "worthy is the Lamb", but it'll be OUR "worthy is the lamb".
peace!
adam
www.indigenousworship.com

I'm not personally a musician or songwriter but I would really love it if there was more of a variety in styles of worship music. There are many different styles of secular music but a lot of worship music does sound quite samey. I quite like English Soul and would like there to be more of this style of worship music.

Fanny Crosby wrote over 8000 hymns. How many can you name? Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns. How many do you know now?
When can you remember the songs not being mediocre? If you go back and listen to all those songs, is that really true? Or is it just that your memory has distilled it for you, so you only remember the best ones?
If you give a musical artist the charge: Only write amazing songs.... Can you even do that without writing some mediocre ones? How do you know which ones are which until you finish writing them and sometimes even then you don't know until you play them for someone, and sometimes even then you won't know until you record it. And sometimes even then, it's not until it's been around for a while and happens to be listened to by the right person at the right place at the right time.
We can't sing everyone's songs (a congregation can only learn so few really). There's only enough time to even listen to a certain number. (Way more are being written than anyone really has time to listen to)
So, yes we have to be discerning ...
Your response is perfect though: If you don't like what others have written ... Go and do better! No sense in complaining that others aren't doing what you want... Maybe this is God's calling, compelling you to write the next "How Great is Our God" or "Shout to the Lord" or whatever song it is that you love that you think is great!
A great way to do that by the way is to join a songwriting circle, and you can even do that online and take a class at www.worshiptraining.com It's been a great help to me!
-jason

"Maybe the reason we are not that excited about some of the new worship songs that are out there is because they are a product of the Christian music industry rather than a product of an encounter with God?"
Wow! Thank you for challenging me in my natural tendency to criticize worship music. For instance, when I first heard Jeremy Camp's "We Cry Out," I thought, eh, this is kinda sucky. But I got my guitar out and started singing along, and although it sounds like a lot of other songs, I really enjoyed it and anticipated worshiping with it.

"Shouldn’t we, as worshippers, be learning how to worship even if the music/ singing is bad, the song is in a style we don’t like and we’re not in a great place in our lives?"
Like, totally. Even to the extent where music isn't necessary for our worship. Bad, good, or mediocre music. Yes, let's improve our music (and we need people like Jamie to poke us about this), but fixing our the worship of own hearts is WAAAAAY more important :-)